§ SIR E. ASHMEAD-BARTLETTI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he can inform the House as to the present position of the forces of the Congo Free State and of France with regard to the Upper Nile waterway; and whether Her Majesty's Government have any information regarding the reported engagements between the Mahdi's troops and Belgian forces on the Bahr-el-Ghazal?